Drawing State Lines in Cities and Regions.

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

SimCity 4 is a really fun game (funniest in the whole series in my opinion) BUT there's just one thing that kinda gets to me. I don't really like how the whole map is a grid and all the cities have to be shaped as squares. I have a whole regions that's supposed to be a country, but I want to draw state-lines/borders around it from the city view (blame my OCD for caring so much about that) 

I'm just curious, does anyone have a method of doing this?

What i'm planning on doing is using the sign/label tool and adding a bunch of dashes: '-' around to make it look like a state line, but does anyone think there's a better way of doing this? 

[matias93 7,535]

You definitely aren't the only one having this inquietude (this word even exists in english?), but you have to consider a couple of things:

• Normally, administrative divisions aren't easily visible on the ground, except when there are built structures to enforce them, as border walls, or when they run over natural divisions, as rivers or mountain ranges.
• The game, old as it is, don't contemplate anything but square city tiles, but you can see them as fixed zoom views, not as fixed cities.

I tried to break the region grid a bit when planifying my region, and got this map:

(yup, I'm a politics nut and those colours represent the political party of the mayor of each municipality; their territorial distribution is even more politically nutty)

But in fact, from the region view, those limits are hardly visible, except when they follow geographical limits (omit the fact that most of the map is empty, this is really slow to fill):

And as the game requires square tiling, I had to adapt the names and political affiliations to the grid, to name the tiles and their mayors:

 

So, resuming, your best option is to use your imagination, a bit of side work and lots of PowerPoint made maps to complement your region-building. Eventually all those goodies will be much appreciated when showcasing them on a City Journal!

[rsc204 21,866]

Perhaps you could accomplish this with some MMPs, probably paths. Those can be dragged against the grid, i.e. freely, allowing you to create a line of sorts. It's not ideal, but there is no way of adding an overlay that can be switched on/off to accomplish what you want, akin to "districts" in Cities Skylines.

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

you can add custom paths in the game? 

[matias93 7,535]

Using MMPs, you can draw custom paths, but they are purely eye-candy, no sim can go through them really. To do that, Pedmalls would be the adequate option, but conversely, you cannot put MMPs over pedmalls, so they will look just as they are.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

I've started dividing my region into states, what I will do is put a two letter prefix next to my city name to indicate the state, so for example Caratoke, NC as the city name. I've also done it with the Mayor name but I like it showing the two letter abbreviation of the state in the city name box. 

NC standing for New Catalina. I take this state mindset further as to restrict trade to cities with in the same state. I pretend like there is a a tariff against trading with cities are not in the same state as your current city. 

The way I differentiate between states is with a change in geography like having a mountain range be the boundary or having a change from hilly to very flat terrain.  

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

2 hours ago, matias93 said:

Using MMPs, you can draw custom paths, but they are purely eye-candy, no sim can go through them really. To do that, Pedmalls would be the adequate option, but conversely, you cannot put MMPs over pedmalls, so they will look just as they are.

what are MMPs?

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

2 minutes ago, Joe_Winko_From_YouTube said:

what are MMPs?

Wayor Mode Plopables. 

[Odainsaker 2,137]

A common real-world means used since ancient times to physically show a political boundary is the use of boundary stones or boundary markers.  These are similar to milestones, waymarkers, or survey markers, and they can range from simple rocks, posts, and sign poles to megaliths, stone pillars, and landmark obelisks.  They are often inscribed in some way, with modern ones also being sequentially numbered or identified by coordinates.

Of course, the size or your region and the fictional relationship you imagine between your states can affect the plop roleplaying.  Sentinel stones in the far wilderness may be enough between peacefully co-existing states, while frontier fence lines, border walls, and even defensive trenches might be needed between states with less happier history.  I've seen city journal landscapes with romantic megaliths and crumbling medieval walls, but I don't think I've ever seen barbed wire trenches or fortified Maginot lines.

[mattb325 28,891]

30 minutes ago, Odainsaker said:

A common real-world means used since ancient times to physically show a political boundary is the use of boundary stones or boundary markers.  These are similar to milestones, waymarkers, or survey markers, and they can range from simple rocks, posts, and sign poles to megaliths, stone pillars, and landmark obelisks.  They are often inscribed in some way, with modern ones also being sequentially numbered or identified by coordinates.

.........

 

.........

 

 

 

 

Eeeek.

All those poor trees that had to die just to have an arbitrary boundary visualised.

[CorinaMarie 29,881]

@matias93 I love your maps! That's a very thorough layout and backstory to go with your region.

[matias93 7,535]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

@matias93 I love your maps! That's a very thorough layout and backstory to go with your region.

Thanks! I guess they are lagging behind the beginning of my CJ, but I want it to be very complete...

4 hours ago, mattb325 said:

Eeeek.

All those poor trees that had to die just to have an arbitrary boundary visualised.

Or simply not planted (?) In any case, it has to be a big task to keep that line of terrain free from saplings...

Oh, and @Odainsaker, once again you delights us with a really informative post. They are of my favourite parts of the entire forum!

[SimCoug 5,976]

C.P. has a prop in one of his packs that looks just like those markers... 

[CT14 2,486]

Found it! There are diagonal and shaded versions for stone and brick.

...

[SimCoug 5,976]

Now if there was only somebody crazy enough to make an MMP out of those....

....

....

Fine.

Get it here... just unzip and toss the folder in your plugins.  You will need BSC MEGA Props CP Vol01
Thanks @Odainsaker for the icon pic 

[philforhockey51 4,220]

Thank you @SimCoug

 

[Haljackey 17,392]

On 5/17/2017 at 3:27 AM, mattb325 said:

Eeeek.

All those poor trees that had to die just to have an arbitrary boundary visualised.

Related

 

[mattb325 28,891]

Thanks haljackey...we humans certainly are an odd bunch...

[Tyberius06 12,260]

OH MY GOD!!!!! @Haljackey

I haven't been laughing that much for a long time!  Human stupidity is always ameze me!

[Propfam 2,303]

If you have 2 cities in one city tile, then you can combine the city name. For example, there's 2 cities in one city tile called Sakura City and Melati City. Then the city name is "Sakura and Melati City". Don't forget to place the signpost (game signpost, not MMP) in the border.

Thank you.

[HayleyRenaNemeth 465]

1 hour ago, Chief ZDN said:

If you have 2 cities in one city tile, then you can combine the city name. For example, there's 2 cities in one city tile called Sakura City and Melati City. Then the city name is "Sakura and Melati City". Don't forget to place the signpost (game signpost, not MMP) in the border.

Thank you.

I usually omit the "And"  and make it a hyphen. 

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

sorry to bump this old topic, but does anyone here know where i can download a SimCity 4 mod that lets me literally draw (or lay down) a line through the land? like on google maps like this:

 

i thought of just using the labeling text, but that whole process seems just a bit too tedious. i was wondering if there was just a mod i could use. 

 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Hm, nothing that I know of. My first thought also was the labeling text.

There are some flat footpath props by SimGoober that would look like light grey bars when placed on their own. Theoretically, these could be turned into an MMP, and placing several of them in a line would result in something that resembles the dashed line in the picture. Finding someone who's interested enough to take on the job would be the hardest part, I guess. You'd also be restricted to orthogonal lines.

Hmm... come to think of it, delecto has also made a set of flat footpath props that should also contain diagonal options. Same story, however: they'd have to be turned into an MMP item by someone.

[CorinaMarie 29,881]

What about using the in game street labeling tool? Maybe a parallel stretch long enough to write in the state names.

Edit: Or like this? (Turns out you can place labels on the ground too.)

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

3 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

What about using the in game street labeling tool? Maybe a parallel stretch long enough to write in the state names.

Edit: Or like this? (Turns out you can place labels on the ground too.)

 

^i guess that'll have to do. looks good enough

[matias93 7,535]

Just a tip: labels are super easy to erase accidentally, and there is no undo button in game. 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

This actually looks better than I thought it would.

OK, and if labels are so easy to erase accidentally (I practically never use them myself, so I wouldn't know), it probably makes sense to finish an area and add them last, I suppose.

[matias93 7,535]

Finish something? On SC4? Is that even possible!? 

[Joe_Winko_From_YouTube 18]

9 hours ago, matias93 said:

Finish something? On SC4? Is that even possible!? 

if u run out of space in the city or region yeah unless you wanna tare stuff down. 

[matias93 7,535]

12 minutes ago, Joe_Winko_From_YouTube said:

unless you wanna tare stuff down. 

Precisely what I was thinking about. As one is continously learning new and better ways to build cities, it is almost unavoidable to demolish and redevelop consolidated parts to make them better, with new tools and methods.